Searching for
by Glitzy
Summary: Meet Tess and Gabriel, Gabriel is a night world vampire, Tess is a girl who wants to be someone else. Guess what? can anyone say Soulmates? Only this couple may be more trouble together than they are apart.Needs the NC17 for later ;)
1. Different worlds

Disclaimer: Right, the IDEA belongs entirely to L.J smith, as do all night World references, but characters Tess and Gabriel belong to me. I may use NW characters later but I don't know yet.  
  
Hugging her arms to her body in the cool summer air, she took another drag on her Marlboro light. She had needed to get out of that house, it was too quiet, too controlled. Tess lived with her great aunt Hally's family, a nice family but very different from Tess. They were fair, she was dark, they were clever, and she was creative. Her cousin Kathy was the same age, only when Kathy did advanced maths and phoned her friends to discuss boys, Tess wanted to do nothing but listen to music, write and paint. Hally said her music was too loud and would upset baby Jack. Uncle Jon liked quiet and calm, he liked classical music and he did not like Tess's fishnets. He threw her worried glances at the breakfast table, where she drank black coffee and poked at her porridge. Her parents died just when she was 5. She didn't remember much, just a sort of blur of sunshine and rocks and the sound of laughing. She always felt so strange, so out of place, sort of like there was a secret locked inside her and she didn't have the key. The sun was setting over the hills; the end of another day.weeks seemed to blend like paint and every day became a slightly faded photocopy of the last. A week of this was calming. An eternity of it was Dull.  
  
He watched her almost every night. It fascinated him, how she sat there so lost in her thoughts. He knew that she wouldn't notice him, not unless he wanted her to. Watching her reminded him of when he was young. There had been so many questions then.and life in this century was even more complicated, but for some reason he had thought that immortality would eventually answer his questions. It hadn't, the questions still plagued him. At eighteen he had been allowed to leave the Enclave. He liked the human world. So many evils walk the night, so few people notice. Everyone is so caught up in his or her own world. They don't think that there could be a whole other world, noticeable only to those who know to look for the symbol of a black flower. This girl though, this girl confused him. He had followed her here once, thinking he would feed, wipe her memory then leave. Only something had stopped him. Maybe it was her eyes.they way she looked so lost in herself, or maybe it was how she managed to look both strong and helpless at the same time. He didn't know. But he had kept coming here, watching her. 


	2. First Impressions

Tess spun around, spilling glitter everywhere. She was laughing so hard her stomach hurt. The glass mirrors sewn into the embroidery of her wings reflected the moonlight. She was glad she had come to the party, they didn't happen often around here, and besides, being a Fairy was a nice break from being herself.  
  
Gabriel lent against an old oak tree, watching her. She hadn't turned up at her rock tonight, so he had looked for her. Hadn't been hard to find her in a town this small.This was getting ridiculous, what did he care for this vermin girl? He had lived for hundreds of years, forgetting his questions, drowning them with his thirst for blood. Now she was dragging them up again, when he had only intended to add her blood to the sea of it that had coursed through his veins in the past. He kicked at the tree in anger. He had been obsessing over her for weeks, but he had had so many beautiful girls before and they had looked nothing like her.This was more. Vermin girls were for nothing more than blood or sex, it was a rule. A simple rule, one that he never thought he would break. But this girl, he knew she could make him break all of his rules. He couldn't ignore it, it was whispering at the back of his mind, driving him mad. The Soulmate theory. He did NOT want to become a damned Daybreaker. The Night world belonged to the night and that was the way it should always be. Every time the two worlds collided people died. They were hung, or drowned or put in insane asylums. As amusing as this could be HE did not want to get caught up in it. Why is it that you are condemned a monster if you drink a little blood, yet humans kill through war and greed each day, and justify it? She was dancing with a boy. Jumping around to the rhythm of some awful tuneless music. She wore chunky black ankle boots, bare legs, a not-too- short red skirt and simple black top. Her Fairy wings were embroidered with glass and rose petals, her hair shone dark red, almost blood. She was not elegant or beautiful, but she caught the eye.She smoked and swore and he got the idea she was full of regret and guilt. That was the problem. He reminded her too much of him.  
  
"I'm getting a drink!" Tess shouted to the boy she was dancing with. He shrugged and moved over to a group of lads. He hadn't really liked her, she knew that. Just someone he could tell his mates about tomorrow, ofcourse in his story she would resemble some supermodel. She wasn't in the mood for games tonight. She started walking towards the makeshift bar. She had the feeling someone was watching her. In fact she had had the feeling for weeks but she had shrugged it off. Paranoia, right? Nothing more, Or maybe not. She looked around, and though she saw someone in the woods. She headed towards the trees at the edge of the garden. Something rustled and she spun around, almost tripping on a fallen branch. A guy stood there, looking angry and confused. He was tall, but not too tall. His tousled black hair grazed his eyes. She had never seen eyes like his before, they seemed to swirl from black to forest green, his eyes reflected the night. They were windows set perfectly in his pale face, soft skin and strong cheekbones. His lips twitched.she waited for him to say something. He didn't. She desperately wanted to study the rest of him but she this was getting strange.awkward. "Hi" she murmured. He laughed lightly, he seemed relieved. "Hey" he said back. "I'm Gabriel" Gabriel, she though. Ga-Bri- el. Angel. Heaven. Saviour. He was looking at her expectantly "oh, umm, Tess"  
  
Tess.nice. He liked that name. Simple. He liked the way the S sounded on his tongue.Shit.Shit what was he doing, talking to her like this? How did she see him? She shouldn't have been able to notice him, had he really let his guard down that much? "What are you doing here?" she tilted her head slightly and started at him "In the woods I mean." Oh goddess what was he supposed to say? "Just stalking you?" Shit shit shit. She made him nervous, a 300-year-old Vampire scared of a sixteen year old vermin girl? This was just weird. "Contemplating gatecrashing I guess.Not much else to do in this town is there?" That was fine.he reassured himself, hoping she wouldn't ask anything else about him. "It's pretty dull isn't it? You visiting?" Damn, more questions. "Yeah, sort of, I don't live far." "Where?" "Oh you won't have heard of it.it's very.isolated" "Oh.so.umm, are you just going to stand in the woods and watch all night or what?" Huh. Confident little thing, he though. "Well I'm sure if I was dancing with you no one would mind me being here." He cursed inwardly, what was he thinking? "Hey I don't think they would do anything anyway.they aren't exactly a rough crowd or anything, they're just kids" "Well, maybe I could get you a drink instead then?" "Yeah.ok.why not?"  
  
Tess was angry with herself. This guy was gorgeous, all black leather trousers and black shirt, boots and a wicked looking ring with a black flower on it.but obviously he had some ulterior motive in asking her to dance and buying her a drink. Maybe he fancied the girl at the bar. She would preferably avoid dancing so as not to make a fool of herself. They were walking now. Who the hell was this guy? Why was he here? Where was so isolated that she would no know of it.? He was strange and mysterious and damn.she liked him. "This is stupid" she told herself, "you don't even KNOW him!" Tess sighed, tore her eyes from him and concentrated on walking to the bar without tripping over something. 


	3. In rain not sun

"Y'know, I thought I'd feel really awkward sitting here with you. I mean I ought to.. Sitting with a complete stranger.." Tess looked into his eyes as she spoke. They were magical. It sounded tacky but it was true, there was something not at all real about his eyes, but somehow she doubted they were contacts. They were sitting on a bench by the edge of the garden, opposite each other. Tess couldn't help but notice that practically every other girl in the party had noticed Gabriel, in a place as small as this, guys like Gabriel were rare. Gabriel was gorgeous, he would become a competition among the local girls of who would get him first. She knew what they were thinking, "why was he sitting there with the freaky girl?" She would normally feel angry or maybe even embarrassed, but this guy, he didn't seem to want to look at anyone but her. "No" he said. "It doesn't feel awkward at all". He seemed a little surprised.  
  
Just being around this girl made Gabriel feel different. For once he felt like he didn't have to pretend to be someone he wasn't. Its not like he was one of those vampires that was "all so tortured" and hated hurting poor innocent humans. Yeah right, none of them were innocent. Goddess he didn't even kill them...well usually. No, in fact he loved being a vampire. But the council and the vampires on the enclave, they were all so.scheming. They all wanted power or money or a nice little wife, Gabriel wanted blood, lust, adventure. He didn't care much about his History, though It was quite interesting, about the Harmans and Redferns or allegiances, all he wanted was to enjoy every moment of immortality, that wasn't so much to ask for now was it? Well so what if that meant breaking a few rules, this girl could be fun, and anyway the rule said not to tell humans about the night world or fall in love with them, and hey, he had no intention of doing either. He just wanted to have a little fun. That's all.  
  
Tess was a little creeped out now; he had been staring at her for quite some time. She raised one eyebrow and asked a question. "Are you meditating? Or is this some voodoo thing?" "Huh?" He did not follow. "You have been staring at me for about ten minutes." Tess was very good at not letting men embarrass her. He lent over the table, tilted his head and examined her eyes. They were very blue, Tess felt her cheeks go red, "damn, exception to every rule." she thought. "I was just thinking about something. Hey, come with me, ok? There's something I want you to see!" He stood up, drink bottle in one hand. "Umm. What is it?" Tess was a little nervous. Should she trust this drop dead gorgeous stranger? He whispered in her ear, "Don't worry baby, I don't intend to kill you and leave you in the bushes.yet" He was grinning. Tess smiled, despite herself. She liked this guy. He was interesting, new and dangerous. Yes, she definitely liked this guy. She followed him as he led her through the woods. She felt the stares of the other girls on her back, "fuck them" she though to herself.  
  
Gabriel led her through the woods and onto a path; it smelled of pine and damp earth. When he reached a tree with a scar the shape of an arrow in the trunk he headed into the woods again. He was concentrating hard and on where he was going, but he knew Tess was still there behind him, and it didn't feel strange, not talking, he knew also that she was watching him very closely.  
  
He moved like a hunter, it was beautiful, somehow he managed to walk without making a single sound, Tess felt like a huge bulldozer next to him. It would have annoyed her, only she was fascinated by every movement he made, his muscles moved in a blur and he faded into the night so well that sometimes she though she had lost him. It was a few minutes after they turned at the oak tree that he finally stopped. It was a clearing, nothing special, just a clearing. She was starting to feel nervous, What was she doing? Her Aunt would kill her if she knew where she was. Only then he turned to her and one half of his lip curled up in a mocking smile, "no need to be nervous, I told you I won't kill you". Two cigarettes, she didn't catch the make, appeared from his back pocket, putting one in his mouth and handing her the other, he got out a lighter. It was silver and had snakes carved into it. He lit their cigarettes but didn't put the lighter away. Tess inhaled, "There are much worse things than death you know". As she blew out Grey smoke he smiled, " smart girl". He turned around and walked to a huge tree, then he disappeared into it. "What the fuck?" Tess was confused. She walked after him, trying to work out where he went, when she heard a laugh. "Bend down," he said "then walk inside" She did. The tree was hollow. Gabriel clicked his lighter so she could see better, there was a metal ladder propped against the inside of the tree. "You ever wanted to be closer to the stars?" he asked her. "All the time" she replied, staring up. "Then lets take a look". "You first, I'm wearing a skirt", Tess grinned. Gabriel smirked and swung himself onto the ladder. She climbed up after him, it seemed very high when she reached the top. She climbed out onto some planks. "Wow" Tess gasped. They were high in the treetops, hidden by leaves and branches, a careful platform of planks holding them. "Are we safe up here?" she asked, "yeah. Ill take care of you." He wasn't joking and it didn't sound as cheesy as it looks on paper. He was staring at her again, time to lighten up the situation, she told herself. "I bet you will" she murmured, He laughed and leant down on the planks, she noticed that there were small candles around the edge of the wooden platform. He lit them. It was square and about twice the size of a double bed. He sat in the centre of it and gestured for her to join him. They sat there, Utterly silent. Staring at the jewels that clung to the black velvet curtain above them.  
  
Slowly Gabriel reached out his hand, he was a little worried, and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to feel anything or not. Touching her could be nothing, like touching any girl, but maybe, just maybe it would be something else. Something he had heard about from Ash, of course he hadn't believed him, but this girl really was different, he hadn't heard much about how this whole Soulmate thing worked but apparently it involved mist. Very, very strange. Well, here goes, he told himself. He lifted his hand to her chin and very lightly brushed his fingers across her lips, tilting her head upward toward the sky. The shocks were immediate, tiny little lightning bolts spinning through his mind and body like daggers, only good, this felt good. A pink haze slowly flooded his vision, and all he could see was Tess, he forgot his previous inhibitions, nothing about her was bad.  
  
The second he had touched her she had felt it, this craziness. Her blood turned hot, it was electric running through her body, she was aware of every movement he made. Slowly a pink haze leaked everywhere, leaving everything with a soft glow; she had an amazing urge to wrap herself in him and this pink haze and never to be apart from him again. Suddenly lightning crashed above them and rain poured down. Goddess, she told herself, we make the rainfall down. This, this was something amazing, something she read about in her books or wrote about in her poems. Their lips met, rain soaking their bodies, the tingling sensation began at their lips but turned into full scale burning as it coursed through their bodies, the pink haze twisted and spun around them like ribbons and silk, protecting them. This was meant to be. 


	4. Flash bulb memories

Flashes of sharp teeth and a hunger so intoxicating I can't breathe. Rose petals floating in swirling pools of blood hardly distinguishable in the haze of deep red. Anger, decades of it, entwined with adventure and excitement, places I could never imagine. Where am I? Who do these memories belong to?  
  
A book full of crushed, dried flowers, lavender and dragon snaps. The sweet smell of perfume and fruit that seems oddly maternal and the distant image of a blonde woman laughing surrounded by soft golden sand and flowing silk waves. Reading Alice in Wonderland and wondering if I would ever be small enough to escape down a rabbit hole, first kiss from a boy, drunk and bored. This is not me, I am Gabriel, I am lost.I'm lost in her thoughts, her memories, not mine. Fuck. I can't let her see.  
  
Blood everywhere, why so much blood? It smells sweet and tempting like candyfloss but disgusting and terrifying at the same time; I cannot separate these thoughts, which ones belong to me? Those teeth again, perfect little knives, carved for a reason, inside beautiful soft lips, a blurred image in an ornate gold mirror, where the fuck am I? Nothing. Nothing but the cold night and stabbing bitter rain. Gabriel is in front of me, warm, salty rain is pouring from eyes. I guess I'm crying. Fuck. 


End file.
